I am employed again. Start in August. Relieved.
If I get this job I may invest in a paper encyclopedia. Analog knowledge in the house.
One of the good things about having a dirty car: the floor mats still carry sand from our beach trip early in the month.
If I agree with Yuval that this is indeed a time to build, then what can I build
There are a lot of people out there doing good work to expose the absurdities, the hypocrisies, and the sheer destructiveness of both the Left and the Right. I myself did some of that work for several years, but I’m not inclined to keep doing it, largely because that work of critique, however necessary, lacks a constructive dimension. There has to be something better we can do than curse our enemies — or the darkness of the present moment. If I agree with Yuval that this is indeed a time to build, then what can I build?
Alan Jacobs
Good morning. It is 24th June 2026, and it’s a Wednesday.
I keep waking up at 5 o’clock or so. Spend the first little bit of the day scrolling through my RSS feed and the overnight newsletters. I’m not sure how that helps me in the long run.
Job interview this afternoon. Have the best version of my uniform ready. Going to go swimming a little later just so I can feel the best in my body.
How should I celebrate afterwards? Maybe fill a bag full of books and find a coffee shop. Or go to the central library for a while.
Time to go write a poem.
Curious
Good morning. It is 2026-06-23, and it’s a Tuesday.
Yesterday I met up with my friend Emmett, a delightful human. We discussed the world, the physical breakdowns as we age, having younger friends, and our cats. A good time.
This morning: it was light when I woke up, and I thought it was later than it was. Spent the first hour staring at a screen, like a fool. I don’t like to see the president’s name in the morning, but I of course looked at the news. Rookie mistake. Making it up by going to a coffee shop with notebook and book (the selected poems of James Schuyler).
From an article on AI and love:
“We were designed to give; the gifts were meant to circulate. Love is too often discussed as a sort of good you want to stockpile, harvest, collect, even extract, but to be loved without loving is a sad accomplishment, a miser’s hoarding of someone else’s wealth. The work of loving is also the work of forging a self and a life.”
Rebecca Solnit